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BY AZURE COLLIER
Times Staff Writer | Monday, April 12, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
JACKSON TOWNSHIP -- With fake money in hand, 7-year-old Tyson Quick lined up to purchase a marshmallow shooter.
"I'm going to shoot at my brothers," joked Tyson, of Hobart.
The shooter, made out of white PVC pipes and decorated with stripes, is designed to spit out mini-marshmallows. It's one of dozens of homemade items sold at Wednesday's marketplace run by home schooled students of the Christian Learning Center and Network. The event, at Liberty Bible Church, was the culmination of eight weeks of mini-economy lessons for 40 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
Groups of students formed their own companies and learned about topics like mass production, supply and demand, marketing and advertising, banking and personal finance. The groups decided on several products to make for the marketplace, and earned a salary of fake money as employees of their businesses. They used the money to buy products on marketplace day.
Each group decided on several products to manufacture, ranging from tie-dye T-shirts, to bird feeders to a candy walk game.
"They had to package it, promote it and produce it," said Beth Mueller, director of the learning center.
This is the sixth year for a cooperative project among Christian Learning Center families, Mueller said. Families involved are from Porter, Lake and LaPorte counties.
"It gets bigger every year. It's a lot of fun," Mueller said.
Students in seventh through 12th grade studied business by reading "Money Matters for Teens," by Larry Burkett, and by listening to guest speakers. The teens put together a pizza business to provide lunch to those attending the marketplace.
A sixth-grade group made denim purses, a slime toy called "Goop," and homemade lollipops. Group member Andrea Burris, 12, of Valparaiso, made her own purse out of denim shorts and used a belt for the purse strap.
"I liked getting together with my friends to make stuff," Andrea said. "It was easy. I sew a lot, so it was easy for me. It was fun."
Faith Trimble, 8, a third-grader, helped run a massage and manicure business at the marketplace. She wore a beauty salon smock and carefully painted customers' nails. Faith said she wants to run her own business someday -- a bakery.
"I liked just learning about business," said Faith, of Union Mills.
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